candelabra of moments

going

          barefoot

so much

               doing   nothing

done

           doing nothing

                                     much

nothing doing

*

ocean blue, the darker blue

shadow of a cloud

underneath that

blue darker than that

*

without a lover so much beauty

makes a person forlorn

summer fog

mutes the bell of a buoy —

so far away it seems to come from inside

its chime strikes the ache

of human melancholy

*

redwing blackbirds ride wild mustard

lean into wind, shoulders flare

swing on a hinge of light

impale me with a whistle

*

a torch in an ancient cave

furled blackness into flame

a Cro-Magnon artist drew

bison on placental walls

fire luffed in the draft

as if spirits attending

his emerging forms

were panting

people passed away

with mammoths

they hunted

                     the paintings

underground

*

many millennia later

a world war exploded

after that, a couple kids

walking their dog in the woods

saw it fall through leaf-litter into a hole

they retrieved it from what became

The Caves of Lascaux

tourists wonder

who made these paintings

and why

               what do they signify

                                                and the abstract markings

almost mathematical

                                  or letters

some felt an old

heat burn inside

them they hadn’t completely

forgotten that deep

social need

to crawl

into a cave to paint

creatures from in-between

*

feet without shoes

hum like Huck, sweet

mountain lilac

nests in hair, skin, sage

ocean air, its salty tang

surrounds that voice

harmonize with living wind

*

a bird inside a Coyote bush

grows quiet as you pass

deeper into the still valley

ocean sounds fade

descend on loaned feet

into a Pleistocene ravine

reach The Wooden Bridge

understand the creek trickling

in its native tongue— red

thimble berries decorate

flimsy leaves waving

on the stream’s breeze

listening to talk

                         talking

           to listen

                          kenning

wave traveler  

                        whale

                                   hwaele

                                                wheel

*

finches flit

bees buzz we walk

                                  path

of dust, fine as flour, cushions

bare feet

                legs strengthen

climbing

              the other side

                                     The Pass of Loose Shale

shards slide and ring

                                   underfoot

        careful in sharp going

                                            

                                             soft beige

yellow     browns

                             orange

*

orderly layers

                       of sedimentary rock

exposed

                  cutaway hillside

          mud

morphed to rock

                               eons ago

cave man

                  painted

                                under ground    it took light

to see

            appeared in dark

                                          when the torch

went out

                to wait

                             to be altho wuz always

                                                                    hwaele  whale wheel wave

rider

          redwing

*

the ridge, the tree

shade

           crushed weeds

where deer slept     full, sky-reflecting blue

ponds         lilies culminate

in eye-hearts . . .

*

may you solve the riddle

of what caused what we are

to shake off scales for skin

to touch touch

                        predicts

                                          intelligence

*

please, fellow beings, shelter yourselves

in nature’s nuptial celebrations

clarify air, sing

above the whispering

black fire crackling

like cellophane beneath our days

so much

               doing       nothing

                                              done

*

orange lichens

                         mandalas

                                           go black

come back

                   as new

                                continents

next to others

                        glowing pale green

clouds separate

                            the darker blue

                                                      shadows of clouds

underneath that blue

                                   darker than that

                     that      that      that

*

solace in that

stickers weeds bugs birds gnats

began to beget before we began

millions of feet walked through millions of years

hand-me down forms we get brand new

trace ocean cliffs

                             into valleys below

so much doing nothing done

                                               being done     done

being       nothing

                              doing

*

walk while everyone works, take off

on feet sing to be free

going        barefoot

allows you to be

stunned by a shadow unrolling

a scroll through a field

                                     trees loosen their leaves

let them go

at just the right moment

*

strip off clothes dive into the lake

lay back under alder limbs

fathom intricate algebra of reflecting facets

flickering like Arabic above

*

ocean blue, the darker blue

shadow of a cloud

underneath that

blue darker than that

so much doing nothing done

 

*

a buck silhouetted above

                                           evening skyline

looks up

               out of shoulder-high grass

still as a branch

                           tossing stars like a sparks

off antlers into space—

*

may you break the chain

reunite

             powder your feet with ancestral dust

feel the wand sow seed syllables

through the Milky Way’s radiant haze

choreograph your dance

into life’s battle stance

so much doing nothing done